Mental health therapy has been an integral part of addiction treatment for decades. Because addiction is, first and foremost, a disease of the mind, it makes good sense to incorporate therapy to ensure better outcomes. More importantly, the clinical research supports this approach.
Put simply, people who go to a drug treatment center and receive regular therapy from a trained clinician are more likely to break the cycle of addiction and stay sober longer. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, has long been considered the gold standard among mental health treatment approaches—-but how effective is CBT for addiction?
This Redemption Recovery article examines the CBT approach to mental health counseling, its effectiveness in treating addiction, and what makes it work.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Addiction
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a structured mental health treatment style that works on finding and changing negative thought patterns and behaviors. It’s a practical, proven, evidence-based approach that is very practical because it focuses on the thinking and behaviors that are causing harm and tackling them directly.
CBT accomplishes this in several ways:
- CBT raises awareness of unhelpful, negative thinking patterns and behaviors.
- It helps patients see the connection between thinking, behavior, and consequences.
- CBT also provides useful strategies for managing anger, fear, and other feelings.
- It provides healthy coping mechanisms for managing stress that can take the place of drugs and alcohol.
Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Effective for Addiction?
Yes, CBT is considered a highly effective, evidence-based treatment approach for substance use disorder treatment. The research results are conclusive on this. Whether a person has a co-occurring disorder or not, nearly anyone with addiction can benefit from CBT. The more you understand about addiction, mental health disorders, and CBT, the more sense this makes.
Addiction is about more than just chemical dependency, cravings, and withdrawal. Ultimately, addiction is almost always a symptom that comes out of unhelpful thought patterns that lead to unhealthy behaviors and relationships. The best drug treatment centers in Ohio consider CBT a powerful tool because it helps individuals understand themselves and enables transformative change.
OK, Why is Addiction Treatment with CBT So Effective?
While CBT wasn’t specifically designed for treating addiction, it is uniquely well-suited to help people overcome substance use disorders—the reason why is simple. Once a person is medically detoxed from alcohol or drugs, dependency, and physical addiction are no longer an immediate threat—-yet they are still very much in danger. Why?
In large part, it’s because the negative thought and behavior patterns that lead to addiction are still present after you take the alcohol, heroin, or meth out of the picture. Separating the person from the drugs is only the first part of the equation.
How Addiction Treatment and CBT Work Together
1: You learn to identify thought patterns and beliefs influencing your behaviors.
2: Your unhelpful beliefs and thoughts lose their power when exposed to truth.
3: You gain new coping tools for managing emotions and increasing awareness.
4: Even if you do not have a co-occurring disorder—-CBT helps protect sobriety.
5: New thinking and behavior yield personal growth in recovery, even after treatment.
How Did Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Addiction Evolve?
In the early days of psychotherapy, psychoanalytic therapy or Freudian psychology was the de facto standard. Freudian psychoanalysis explores unconscious conflicts, desires, and past experiences to understand current behavior.
The fact that mental health therapy for addiction has moved past this, though, does not mean it was not useful. It’s fair to say that Freudian psychology got us where we are today.
After Freud came the humanistic therapy style that Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow pioneered. The humanistic therapy approach became the bridge connecting psychoanalysis to modern mental health therapy methods like CBT and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), among others.
Humanistic therapy was the first approach to be more patient-centered, empathic, and non-judgmental. It merged psychoanalysis with personal growth and self-understanding, which remain important pillars of CBT for addiction today.
When and How Did CBT Merge with Addiction Treatment?
As substance abuse treatment began to evolve in the mid-late 20th century, clinicians soon realized that patients who underwent transformative changes in their thinking were far more likely to stay sober successfully over the long term. The success of 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous made that clear.
Patients who got sponsors and worked all twelve steps in those programs underwent profound changes in their thinking. Those changes translated into different, more healthy behaviors, which helped them stay sober. The medical professionals treating people for substance use disorders began integrating psychotherapy into addiction treatment, and CBT eventually became the favored approach because of its track record for success.
Where Does Dual-Diagnosis Treatment Fit In?
Dual-diagnosis treatment is substance use disorder treatment that integrates not only mental health therapy but also diagnosis and treatment for other disorders, such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Conditions like this often appear alongside addiction and are known as co-occurring disorders.
Dual-diagnosis treatment is much more than simply “drug rehab plus therapy.” This approach recognizes that people with undiagnosed or untreated co-occurring disorders are far more likely to relapse, even after drug treatment, if their other disorders aren’t properly addressed.
Since as much as 50-70% of people entering drug rehab in Ohio also have a co-occurring disorder, this makes dual-diagnosis care a critical need.
Key Data Points About Co-Occurring Disorders and Addiction
- At least 50-70% of people entering addiction treatment have a co-occurring disorder.
- Only about 18% of Ohio addiction treatment programs are dual-diagnosis capable.
- At least 29% of people with mental illnesses misuse alcohol or drugs.
- 15% of opioid-involved hospitalizations involve patients with co-occurring disorders
Redemption Recovery: Dual Diagnosis Treatment in Ohio
At Redemption Recovery, our dual-diagnosis program identifies and addresses co-occurring disorders effectively and with empathy.
We are best known for our powerful blend of scientifically proven addiction treatment methods and practical, homegrown wisdom. Our program doesn’t just help people get sober—-we help them stay that way by driving home the fundamentals of honest, productive living.
Our approach to treating addiction and co-occurring disorders makes us unique among drug treatment centers in Ohio. No matter how far you think you or the person you love has fallen, it’s never too late to begin the climb back up with our help. All it takes today is a phone call.
One call can change it all.
It’s time for Redemption: (419) 528-8007
Find out what addiction treatment your insurance will cover here.
